"Among the academicians manipulatively shaping Dalit Studies, Gail Omvedt occupies a very important place. She is a sociologist from the University of California at Berkeley, and became an Indian citizen in 1983. She combines nineteenth-century colonial categories with Marxist subaltern constructions, seeing Indian culture as a creation by the upper castes to subjugate the lower castes for thousands of years. Anything that united Indians in their fight against colonialism is merely ‘high-caste symbols’. She attributes the attitudes of Aryan supremacy to even Mahatma Gandhi, saying that he ‘saw Aryans as his ancestors. As against what he saw as the evils of industrialism, he wanted to go back to an idealised, harmonious village society in which tradition ruled. This he called Ram Rajya’... While she argues against the Indian state and criticizes Indian industrialists, she favors globalization of the Indian economy in ways that would make India subservient to the West. Her former leftist colleagues analyzing her stand on globalization, find a striking continuity in her writings. They point out how she puts into the mouths of Dalits words of appreciation for British rule."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Human rights activistsActivists from IndiaWomen activists from the United StatesSociologists from the United StatesSociologists from India
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Malhotra, R., Nīlakantan, A. (2011). Breaking India: Western interventions in Dravidian and Dalit faultlines
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gail_Omvedt
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Gail Omvedt
Gail Omvedt (2 August 1941 – 25 August 2021) was an American-born Indian sociologist and human rights activist.
2 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Gail Omvedt →
Related Quotes
"Such a position authorizes Omvedt’s recent pro-liberalization stance: neo-colonialism and economic dependency are abs…"
"One hundred years hence, what a change will be made, In politics, morals, religion and trade, In statesmen who wrangl…"
"Our laws then will be uncompulsory rules, Our prisons converted to national schools."
"Oppression and war will be heard of no more, Nor the blood of a slave leave his print on our shore, Conventions will …"
"PHFI is a private society cleverly disguised as a public-private partnership since some of the people in the governin…"
"The PHFI appears to have a conflict of interest in advising the government of India and directing the immunization pr…"
"When one appeals solely to the truth of a discourse to authorize it intellectually and socially, one represses reflec…"
"On the other hand, ... a pragmatic turn ... expands the number of parties who may participate more or less as equals …"
"Where a discourse is redeemed ultimately by metatheoretical appeals, experts step forward as the authorities. This si…"
"The future of popular-based social and economic changes does not he in parliamentary elections, given their elitist s…"